Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.

If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!

I don't worry about it, since I can kick everyone's butt anyway, so it does not matter because whatever aikido I do...mine is the best!

I don't do it with fast reflexes or speed, or strength (unless I want to). I usually just stare at them really hard and they give up.

Sometimes, if I am really angry, I generate so much power that I have to hold it back cause just the static electricity that builds up in my body is enough to induce heart failure. I did use it once as an AED to help a guy out that was having a heart attack, so that "negative" energy does have some good uses I guess.

Sensei told me that is was wrong to use my powers for my own self gain and that I needed to let people make mistakes and figure things our for themselves and that I should only use "our" style of aikido when someone is really in trouble, like they are going to jump off a bridge, or they are crossing the street in front of a car or something.

It is hard to do this though, because sometimes I realize that I do have to use my strength, power, and speed to stop a guy from getting in front of a car. (I guess if they are not looking at me, or know that I am present, then I can't use my "evil stare" to stop them). So there has been a few people I could not help! It made me sad.

So, anyway, i usually choose to not use my aiki powers, and we usually keep them secret from everyone else for these reason. Also, if everyone found out how awesome we where and how good my sensei really was, well then, we would not have time to train our own powers as everyone would want to come. besides....how special would we be if we let everyone in on our secrets?

It is a huge responsibility and a very hard burden to study our form of aikido, but I know it is the best, and I am glad that Sensei allows me to study it!

ps. don't tell him I wrote this here...he would not like it and will make me form a thousand KI balls which is very tiring.

"A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."

Some of these aikidoka where Yoshinkan. Read Angry White Pajama
for additional info.

OSU

P.S.
As Xu mentioned earlier, there where various martial artists
who tried to defeat the BJJ's and couldn't do it. However, I
still believe you would fare better in a fight with multiple attackers
with aikido.

multiple opponents....fare better? why is that? What assumptions are you making as to why one training methodology would fare better than another? Different people...i'd by, but based on style or methodology?

hmm...it's been a while since I read Angry White PJs but I'd lay down a dollop of cash that it doesn't mention anything about matches between aikidoka and BJJers....

And you'd win that bet Michael. My bad. There is a mention of one of the student instructors in the senshusei course named Paul who gets chocked out by Royce during a seminar, and not during an actual match.

did u know Osensei's son put a disgrace on Aikido?? He stole the dojo from the person Osensei trusted who can pass Aikido down. And his son has made his own styles of Aikido and heeps other ppl did too. (Hombu, Yoshinkan)

now heres my point, We had a Iwama white belt and a Humbu 4th dan training together. The Hombu tried a technique on the White belt but just didn't work when the whit belt did it, its worked. I saw it with my own eyes trust me.

Iwama was the original style and the "best" style, the techniques were correct and teaching method was correct.

but now Aikid has so many styles, and many of which is worse than Iwama and so people think AIkido is bad, but Aikido the real one, is actually the best martial art ever =D XD

Quote:

Angus Chen wrote:

each style has an emphasis on different things, but hey, all i'm saying is wat i've seen, Iwama is the real deal LOL i think Yoshinkan and everything is great for self defense, but Aikido is not JUST self defense

ITs a Martial art, but when ppl say Aikido sucks and start to hate it, Its because the real and original Aikido has been changing into different styles and stuff. Honbu and Yoshinkan and others r great but to be honest with u ppl, Iwama is better LOL

but wats better also depends on the person, maybe he has faster reflexes and stuff so yea, it depends.

And also alot of people find other martial arts better like Karate and Taekwondo, personally, i do not think they r real martial arts, the philosophy and action is totally not martial.

And you'd win that bet Michael. My bad. There is a mention of one of the student instructors in the senshusei course named Paul who gets chocked out by Royce during a seminar, and not during an actual match.

Pages 254/255.

OSU

right you are.

"When your only tool is a hammer every problem starts to look like a nail"

multiple opponents....fare better? why is that? What assumptions are you making as to why one training methodology would fare better than another? Different people...i'd by, but based on style or methodology?

I always fair better when I'm in a group of attackers. In fact, I can't think of a single time me and my friends have failed to win a fight with one guy.

I'm thinking of seeing about getting us all tire irons, just to make it more interesting.

Don, this just shows your total lack of breeding and sportmanship - typical yank - at least use nunchuks so the prey has a sporting chance, it's the thrill of the chase don'tcha know that gets the heart pounding and impresses the fillies... (oh, and have one of the valets keep a shotgun handy just in case the peasant has the audacity to bolt)

Don, this just shows your total lack of breeding and sportmanship - typical yank - at least use nunchuks so the prey has a sporting chance, it's the thrill of the chase don'tcha know that gets the heart pounding and impresses the fillies... (oh, and have one of the valets keep a shotgun handy just in case the peasant has the audacity to bolt)

Ian, that's just cruel and unusual punishment, giving the prey nunchuks and asking he/she to defend against Don's tire-iron-wielding-skirt-wearing attackers. I am sure Don folks would stand around snickering and taking bets to see when the poor sod going to knock him/herself out. I liked Don's approach in self-defense, safety in numbers and well armed.
Also, we don't use valets to keep the shotguns, our women handle that. why do you think we wage war in foreign lands? it's safer over there.

Sorry Jun, did not want to go off the topic, but the "devil's fire" made me do it.

It's not that people hate aikido, they hate the people who are dan ranked in aikido but who can't physically demonstrate what they preach about without uke cooperation and assistance. Aikido instructors who try to convince modern, educated people that aikido trumps the laws of physics. People who have completely misinterpreted the founder's deep philosophical meanderings at the end of his life and as a result go from being regular hippies to being teriyaki flavored hippies who spew out enough propaganda that the masses think that aikido is the unnatural, anti survival nonsense they are blathering about. The people who practice revisionist history. Aikido sensei who have 40 years of aikido training yet still understand nothing of the historical rationale of the techniques and as result demonstrate irimi nage or ikkyo at the wrong maai as suitable defenses to a boxing combination/flurry and adopt "aikido principles" to newaza. I could go on all day. As a long time and current martial arts/aikido practitioner I say that hatred of these things is not only completely justified but a good and healthy reaction. The longer you practice, the longer the list gets. If you want to accelerate the process, aikido message boards are definately the way to go!

Good post Mike. I think you are correct on a perspective. The other side of the coin though is this:

Even if you have a 40 year Shihan that could be doing everything correctly, people will still hear what they want to hear, and attempt to turn this into something it is not attempting to make it fit into whatever delusion they are attempting to feed for themselves.

I tend to not be so hard on the 40 year shihans these days, but more on the individuals since when you get down to it, it is not the institution that is failing the individual, but the individual that is failing themselves within the institution of aikido.

To be successful, really in anything in life, we have to begin with an end in mind. Know why we are training, and make sure that the things we are trying to master to achieve that endstate are actually the right things to be spending our time on.

I bet that a bunch of us out there in our budo practice cannot really articulate rationally why we are doing this thing called aikido!

So, is the system failing the individual, or is the individual failing him/her self?

Looking back at your post, I now realize that we are saying the same thing!

The sense I get is that sometimes Aikido may look, or rather seem fake. After a beginner steps on the mat and has great difficulty in executing techniques, the instructor may tell the beginner's partner to soften up a bit to allow movement to completion. The beginner then starts to improve then goes out and attempts to demonstrate his newfound skills, and the problems begin. He experiences resistance and quite naturally attempts to use more strength to complete the technique, fails and the rumors begin. Aikido does not work.
Many years ago, a Tae Kwon Do master who knew I had been practicing Tae Kwon Do for 20 years, found out that I was studying Aikido. He asked me: Why do you study aikido? Aikido doesn't work. I chose not explain and left his ignorance intact.

Ultimately, it is a problem of the ego and/or flaws in temperament in those who demonstrate a dislike for something they know little about. I had a conversation with a former co-worker who said this: "I hate the Dallas Cowboys." ( He is an Philadelphia Eagles fan) I asked him if he knew anyone on the Dallas team and he said no. My questions on this idea; (1) How can you hate someone you do not know and have had no experience or interactions with? (2) What does that attitude teach his children? (3) Could this parental attitude be responsible for so much negativity,hatefulness and violence in today's youth and adults?

All I know is that I have seen too much to buy into hating anything except folks who hate everything...Especially self proclaimed internet based "experts."

I just ignore most of them.

William Hazen

That's all we need is four more years of folks hating on each other or using hate and fear as a tool to maintain power.

I guess you know who I am voting for and if you ever heard the man in person The you too could hope that all of us can someday drop this kind of BS and move on to helping each other get better at whatever Martial Art we "lOVE".

Here are 10 reasons for my hating Aikido (Not necessarily in order and not necessarily my top 10):

1) Every time I tie on my hakama I immediately have to pee.

2) The harder and longer I practice the more I realize my limitations and faults.

3) Even though my body is breaking down I'm happier training than when I am not training.

4) My Aikido students walk into my house (even if I lock the door) and drink my beer without asking. (Although usually they ask if I want one too.)

5) My Aikido students learn what I teach them to the extent that they delight in hurting me and force me to realize my limitations and faults and won't stop rubbing my nose in it until I improve enough that they can no-longer do so . . . AND THEN they expect me to teach them how to do it again!

6) I never was as good as "I used to be" and probably will never be as good as I want to be, and I don't feel as good about what I have accomplished as I expected to feel about it in the first place.

7) Where's the love? Where's the peace? (Not where's the fridge!)

8) My 1 1/2 year old son does my solo body exercises better than I do.

9) Anytime somebody wants to pick a fight with me and I warn them that I've trained in the deadly martial art of Aikido for decades, they walk away laughing . . . and I never get to try out any of my cool moves! (Which I'm absolutely convinced will work as practiced as long as they a) attack with proper intent and form, and b) properly realize that one strike can kill in Aikido and behave accordingly.)

10) I met my wife, became a Buddhist priest, met most of my best friends, got my first job, earned higher educational degrees, get to travel around the world, and have received a host of other cherished benefits all through Aikido . . . and I HATE Aikido! (For all of the above reasons and probably others too . . .) How sucky is that?